Recently, in an interview on "The Good Trouble Show", Garry Nolan shed new, scientific light on UAP (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena). In this interview, Matt Ford asked a number of questions about the Sol Foundation, its very first symposium, and the recent statements that have emerged from this news. Let's analyze these recent advances on the subject together, to understand why these allegations have been such a thunderclap in the ufology media landscape.
"The Good Trouble Show with Matt Ford" is a YouTube channel featuring content on UFOs, Unidentified Flying Objects (UFO for Unidentified Aerial Phenomena), political commentary and political satire. The show is hosted by Matt Ford, an Emmy-winning presenter who brings a diverse range of topics to his audience. The Emmy Awards, also known as the Emmys, are presented by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. Since 1949, they have honored the best programs and professionals in American television.
The channel is known for its content, which includes interviews with notable guests from diverse fields such as politics, journalism, science and activism. These guests range from influential figures on Capitol Hill to key players in the media, as well as individuals involved in UAP disclosures. The show's approach is to provide insightful commentary and discussion with these influential figures, offering viewers an in-depth look at contemporary issues and developments.
Dr. Garry P. Nolan, holds the Rachford and Carlota A. Harris Professorship in the Department of Pathology at the prestigious Stanford University School of Medicine. He has founded biotech companies, written numerous medical research articles and studies the UAP topic.
One of his notable projects includes the examination of some 100 individuals, including military personnel from the CIA, the Central Intelligence Agency and private contractors in the defense aeronautics sector, who have allegedly been in contact with UFOs. He looked at the potential impact of these encounters on the human brain. Nolan's research here intersects the fields of pathology, neuroscience and the study of these phenomena.
His research also covers the evaluation of materials purportedly derived from UAP. It aims to understand the composition and potential origin of samples, drawing parallels with the way technological advances such as silicon have revolutionized human civilization. His approach is both analytical and speculative, considering the wider implications of these potential discoveries for our understanding of extraterrestrial life and technology.
The scope of Garry Nolan's UAP research has expanded to include collaborations with government and academic experts, particularly in the context of the Sol Foundation. On its website, the foundation's "about" section reads: “The time has come for serious, well-funded, and cutting-edge academic research into the nature of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena and their broad cosmological and political implications." The SOL foundation is a new think tank, aiming at submitting proposals to public authorities, striving to become a premier center for UAP research.
Officially launched on August 15, 2023, the non-profit organization has been established to “research the philosophical, policy, and scientific implications of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP)” according to a press release. The Sol Foundation is headed by Dr. Nolan, along with socio-cultural anthropologist Dr. Peter Skafish.
Other experts on the organization's team include former Inspector General of the Intelligence Community (IC IG) I. Charles McCullough III, who will serve as its legal advisor, and Diana Walsh Pasulka, an author and professor of religious studies at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, who recently announced that she would be joining the foundation as a board member.
The Sol Symposium
The organization's first-ever UAP Research Symposium was held on November 17-18, 2023 at Stanford University, and represents a crucial breakthrough in the field. Organized by Drs. Garry Nolan and Peter Skafish, the event explored key topics concerning these phenomena such as technology, the role of science and potential government responses. An impressive list of speakers from a variety of fields were invited. These included Sol Foundation members such as Charles McCullough III, Dr Diana Walsh Pasulka and Jonathan Berte, AI entrepreneur and president of Robovision.
Other speakers and experts on the subject included Dr. Eric Davis, theoretical physicist at The Aerospace Corporation; Dr. Timothy Gallaudet, retired U.S. Navy Admiral and former Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; Dr Jairus Victor Grove, Director of the Hawaii Future Research Center and Chairman of the Department of Political Science at the University of Hawaii; and Dr Avi Loeb, Professor of Astronomy at Harvard University and Director of the Galileo project.
Also featured are journalist and author Leslie Kean, known for her work on UAP and for the 2017 New York Times article; Christopher Mellon, former Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Staff Director of the Senate Intelligence Committee ; Dr. Beatriz Villarroez, director of the VASCO project and assistant professor at the Nordic Institute of Theoretical Physics in Sweden; and Dr. Jacques Vallée, computer scientist, astrophysicist and renowned author, as well as former US Air Force veteran and intelligence executive David Grusch.
A highlight of the symposium was the contribution of former U.S. Army Colonel Karl E. Nell, and that of former Stanford Research Institute scientist Hal Puthoff. Colonel Nell pleaded for the creation of a "UAP Disclosure Campaign Plan" aimed at forcing transparency as in the past with the "Manhattan Project." According to him, the goals are clear: full transparency on secret programs "before conclusion of the decade", as reported by DailyMail.com. In a later slide, Colonel Nell expressed hope that disclosure on the issue would be complete by October 1st 2030, although he admitted that this achievement was likely to be delayed.
The Sol Foundation's ambitious goal, described by David Grusch at the conference, is to "open ourselves to a future where truth, unity, technological advancements and a deeper understanding of our existence converge."
Whistleblower Grusch delivered the closing remarks of this first symposium, via a live remote video broadcast on the evening of Saturday, November 18.
"Let us advocate for transparency, not for ourselves," he told participants, "but for the generations to come, as we embark on a journey toward a more enlightened and interconnected world."
Prior to his explosive and alarming UAP testimony before the House Oversight Committee last July, Grusch had submitted a resume to Congress indicating his current position as Director of Operations for the Sol Foundation, but a Sol spokesperson told DailyMail.com that this was "not the case now."
"The Sol Foundation does not currently have a C-Suite. There is no COO or CFO", emailed Matt Barbet, who represents Sol on behalf of his PR agency named "Freuds".
"This may have been incorrectly shared previously."
Last June, Colonel Karl E. Nell put his own reputation on the line by supporting Grusch's public testimony, which asserted that the U.S. possesses a long-standing, secret and illegal program to recover and reverse-engineer UAP of non-human origin. Nell also called the whistleblower "beyond reproach". His comments at the symposium attracted interest, not least because of his last military post as "modernization advisor" for the U.S. Army Futures Command, a major initiative since 1973. This organization led the development of unmanned robotic combat vehicles, artificial intelligence projects and other advances.
Here now is a summary of the first major statements from the symposium available to us, from DailyMail.com, which covered the event:
Nobel Prize nominee and CIA scientist Dr. Hal Puthoff, who worked in the secret government program from 2008 to 2012, revealed that he had briefed Congress on secret reverse-engineering programs on UFOs.
Chris Mellon, a former official at the Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, shared that additional revelations and high-resolution images would soon be available, following his discussions with a current contact within the Department of Defense (DoD)
The current head of the DoD's AARO All Domain Anomaly Resolution office, Dr Sean Kirkpatrick, is due to be replaced by the end of 2023, allegedly and following suspicions of lying to the public and ignoring witnesses by UFO whistleblowers.
Colonel Nell, now an aerospace executive, has served at all hierarchy levels during his career, including assignments with the U.S. Army Reserves, DIA and U.S. Space Command. From 2021 to 2022, he was the Army's dedicated liaison to the Pentagon's UAPTF (UAP Task Force). He expressed the hope of direct "engagement" ("engagement") with "non-human intelligences" in the next decade, ushering in a new "interactive" era of "scientific discovery".
Above all, he described his proposal as an effort to "avoid catastrophic disclosure", i.e. a chaotic release of potentially divisive, earth-shattering revelations, whether by independent actors or foreign rivals of the USA. Indeed, as David Grush pointed out in his interview with Walter Kirn for Highway magazine, these entities might not be friendly, but "Indifferent to us at best".
Belgian artificial intelligence entrepreneur and founder of Robovision Jonathan Berte compared potential UAP-related technological advances to the Industrial Revolution of the XIXᵉ century, suggesting that they could worsen climate change.
Chris Mellon expressed concern about the social unrest, economic upheaval and possible international arms race that could follow new revelations on this subject. He also raised the possibility that "disclosure" could change the behavior of these phenomena and those who control them, as they would no longer need to remain hidden. Finally, he said he was working with the US government on a declassification guide.
Garry Nolan's interview by Matt Ford
Following this symposium was the interview broadcast on November 26, 2023 on the Youtube channel of Matt Ford's show. The presenter asked Garry Nolan about the creation and raison d'être of the Sol Foundation. He declared:
"It isn't as if there aren't other professional organizations out there, some fantastic ones like SCU and UAPX and others, that aren't approaching the problem from a professional standpoint, but nobody yet has addressed the professional academic Market".
He went on to explain that the scientific approach enables papers to be written that can serve as reference points for future studies of the phenomenon, thus avoiding re-discovery. As an example, he stated:
"When you write a paper, you generally have to reference other papers, because those end up being sort of the foundation on which you're building sets of arguments, and you can't necessarily or easily reference an opinion piece somewhere or a Twitter thread".
Nolan added:
“And also you want the discussion to be around formulas, policy approaches, reasoned arguments, and all of those arguments need to be at some level what we call peer reviewed."
That's how the discussion began between David Grush, Peter Skafish and Garry Nolan, who went on to say that they needed to professionalize ufology, because there's a real need for scientific research and well-founded arguments. What's more, too much noise on social networks and in politics around the subject doesn't help scientific progress for generations to come. This is what motivated them to set up the Sol Foundation.
Asked about the key points of the symposium, he replied that "many academics now are taking this seriously" and that it's no longer a subject to be laughed at. What's important today is the data, and more and more of these researchers, including at Stanford, are looking at the data and saying that it's serious and worth looking at.
He added that the second important point was "listening to Colonel Karl Nell talk about the reasoning behind each of the issues caused by the Schumer Amendment as it was originally put forward, and also understanding the political reasoning behind the vocabulary used in this piece of legislation. According to him, what's important here is knowing how to read the language used, which states:
"There is clear evidence of some sort of a program that deals with material that doesn't seem to be from humans and that there is over classification of the data that prevents it from being released to the public."
Garry Nolan explained that one of the fundamental motivations in his career has been the realization that there is a great deal of untapped potential. The fact that the government hides from the public the fact that they're not alone in the universe, and that there are technologies or materials derived from these objects that science can't benefit from, makes him very angry.
He adds that it's an "open secret" that any skeptic of the subject can say whatever they want about blurry videos, but then they should ask themselves why would all the lobbyists for the biggest aerospace companies “bring major pressure to bear such that McConnell went to Schumer and said it's over, it's out?".
Senator Mc Connell was therefore implying that Schumer's bill would not pass. In addition, Garry Nolan added that the Director of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Mike Turner, and the Director of the House Committee on Armed Services, Mike Rogers, are both trying to derail the bill. Dr. Nolan openly asked the question:
"If it's something that doesn't exist, why do you spend so much time trying to make sure that people continue to think it doesn't exist?"
He explained that this is what he says to people who ask him what is the best proof of the existence of secret UAP programs.
"The best evidence for whether or not there's UAP it's like what your government is doing about it and how it's twisting itself into pretzels to find ways not to talk about it."
According to Dr Nolan, members of the government speaking out so harshly against the bill is “disclosure in itself” and that he doesn’t think that “people who are doing this realize that there's a lot of people out there like me who really don't like being told no".
He points out that this rejection has pushed him to work harder to get the answers to his questions and move forward with his research. He believes that there are many other people like him who won't stop looking for answers, that this refusal angers the public and that these officials may have succeeded in keeping the truth about the subject at bay for a while, but they won't be able to keep hiding it forever.
"Rude Awakening"
Garry Nolan, asked about the aftermath of Disclosure, explains that he has spoken with Karl Nell and David Grusch on the subject. It became clear that there are many things that can go wrong if information is released to the public in the wrong way. So Colonel Karl Nell wishes to “prepare the instruments of power, (...) prepare the instruments of government and Society in a careful way to accept the information more readily."
This will take 8 to 10 years according to Dr. Nolan and Colonel Karl Nell, and some people don't like the idea and find it ridiculous, like Jack Sarfati who, according to the guest, thinks that "because he solved warp equations that he's the center of the universe." He went on to say "I'm sorry Jack, you're a giant narcissistic fool. Sorry for having to say that but he's been all off on me, sounds like some debunkers.” Noan thinks it's unnecessary, unprofessional to take things to that level and thinks that everything has to be done immediately, so it has to be done carefully.
Matt Ford, transitioned to another topic, saying he hopes the representatives who are blocking progress on Disclosure and on the bill will "have a rude awakening."
"Speaking of rude awakening, myself and two other people have something that will come out in the media very soon. All I can say is the Pentagon is not gonna be happy". We now know that this is the article he co-wrote with Josh Boswell and Christopher Sharp, a subject covered by UAP Check.
The latter continued the interview asking questions from the show's audience, about any plans for economists to join the foundation. To which Nolan replied that they are planning to hold their next event in Washington D.C., as they want to get as many politicians, members of the government or political institutions as possible to join them.
Garry Nolan went on to explain that the foundation needs an economist to assess the positive or negative impact that disclosure and new technologies will have on the global economy. He took the example of disruptive technological innovations in the fields of energy, interstellar or terrestrial travel, which are not seeing the light of day because the government is working in secret without consulting academic scientists. He went on to allege that "this is the reason why I think Carl's amendment was genius and what he wanted to do was because it was preparing for this now."
Talking about the symposium, the presenter remarked: "One of the things that that really stuck out to me at Sol was all of the presentations - and these are some of the smartest people on this topic, if not in the world - no one questioned if these are real or if we are being interacted with; it was definitive: “this is here".
To which Garry Nolan responded with an example: "I had given a presentation now almost eight, nine years ago that had been put together by Jeffrey Cal and the point of at least what I was talking about was I said: look, let's start from these assumptions that they're real, and if they're real, what are the consequences of that reality now?"
He pointed out that this was an academic question, yet it shocked Diana Pasulka, who wrote in her book that "anybody would dare make that premise", to which Dr. Nolan retorted "but that's how scientists start". “We're not going to start with “are they real”, because the question has been asked for 100 years.” He went on to explain that "the Sol Foundation's policy is to think about the consequences of a speculative outcome".
Dr. Nolan was then asked if he had researched the 1.6 Ghz signal as being emitted by a UAP, an event that took place at the famous "Skinwalker Ranch". The Skinwalker Ranch is a 207-hectare property in Utah, USA. It is known as the site of numerous paranormal and extraterrestrial encounters. The name boasts "skin-walker", derived from a tribal folklore of natives called "Navajos" (sorcerers able to metamorphose into animals). Matt Ford added: "I've also read somewhere that our government is able to look at the RF frequencies emitted by these vehicles and be able to predict what they're going to do, what can you say about that?
"RF" stands for Radio Frequency, which refers to an electromagnetic wave frequency between 3 kHz and 300 GHz, and includes frequencies used by various means of radio communication, including mobile telephony, Wi-Fi, broadcasting, as well as signals for other uses such as radar or microwave ovens. RF electronics manage radio wave signals, sending them to antennas, receiving them and processing them. The special feature of these waves is their ability to travel through the air, our environment and space.
Garry Nolan replied that he has heard that "several frequency ranges being mentioned", but he thinks that, for the same reason that a jet fighter sounds different than a helicopter, "the frequencies that any of these things might emit are going to be different". He pointed out that independent scientists, such as Harvard's Avi Loeb, have come up with some very interesting results on this subject, and that it's interesting to note that each signal emitted is unique, and that this applies not only to the signal itself, but also to its sideband. This is very important, as both pieces of information help us to understand how a signal is generated, which is why the guest maintained that the job of scientists is to collect these signals and then correlate them with UAP observations.
He then detailed the reasoning he believes will be used to study these phenomena: "If you see a signal, what does that tell you about the device that generated it? Aand if the signal is correlated to the movement of the object or the propulsion system of the object, what does that tell you about the propulsion system?"
Or, taking the example of his own research:
"Everything I do in science is I'm not looking directly at the proteins, I'm looking at what the protein's effects are on its environment, and I'm usually several steps away from the initiating event of causality but still though with enough data, I'm able to infer how the machine is operating."
Interestingly, he made a rather interesting assertion shortly after that, suggesting that he is aware of some of the data collected by the government on these objects:
"I also know from having seen some data on some of the materials that the people who were collecting the data did a good job collecting this data, but they're not putting it together in the way that a scientist would, and it's just sad to me to see this. That's frankly a crime of, at least, scientific intent."
The presenter then asked Garry Nolan if the video replays of the symposium will be posted online, to which he replied that they will be available free of charge on Youtube, as he wants information to circulate freely to avoid misinformation about the symposium, adding that these videos are currently being edited.
Matt Ford then asked another question from the audience : "Do you expect legacy programs to reach out to your organization for the purpose of recruitment of scientists and other experts?" To which Garry Nolan replied:
"That would be nice, but I'm not going to say anymore."
"Shadow Biome"
Matt Ford then moved on to the next question, as a listener asked if Dr. Nolan can give any new information about an event he recorded and mentioned in the past relating to what he called a "Shadow Biome". Garry explained, "there was a guy on Twitter in a far off country, who had images of things that he couldn't explain, and I did trust him, spoke with him and it was really quite intriguing."
He continued:
"I don't want to put the guy under the rest, but I had offered to pay for cameras and things, and I did pay for some things for him but then… I don't know what happened. But things just kind of went awry and so I still think that the images of what he had put up there were real, and they seemed to be worth investigating."
He got hesitant about his choice of words and added:
"It seems to indicate what people have called a shadow biome, this is a form of life that you need a special kind of camera to see."
Later in the interview, the presenter asked him if he could describe the "Shadow Biome", or at least what he had seen on the videos, and Dr. Nolan firmly replied in the negative, before adding:
"To me it's clear evidence of life".
Other points raised in the interview include the research agenda presented on the foundation's website, which includes the creation of a policy framework for the European Union. Garry Nolan explained that one of the foundation's board members, Jonathan Berte, is Belgian.
"Everyone thinks that - or at least everybody accuses the US of being US-centric, which of course they are, and that UFOs only seem to show up around the US. Well, no. We just record them more I guess, or the stigma is a little bit less here."
Garry Nolan explained that Jonathan Berte and others of European origin are trying to inform the European Parliament and other governments of the US advance on the subject. Furthermore, he pointed out that the EU allows several countries to speak with one voice, and that if there's one positive thing about Brexit, it's that England is out of this union. He explained by speculating that the two countries are historical allies.
"The UK is out of that discussion - and I'm British, originally. I was born there, and if anything, they were the ones who were, perhaps, more under the leash of US intelligence agencies, and so now they're out of that and maybe that's going to enable something a little bit better."
The interview continued with questions about how the public will adapt to possible revelations about these phenomena, such as how to prepare younger people for them.
Nolan's response was to "pitch it, not preach it", asking young people hypothetical situations with questions like "what would you do if?", providing context around a situation, hypotheses, and then asking what the consequences might be? How would it affect the economy, religion, sociology, transport or energy?
In his view, you have to ask them provocative questions and give them the best possible reading on the subject. In this regard, he cited the writings of Jacques Vallée and the books of Richard Dolan. He also pointed out that Dolan's writings are, in his opinion, full of erudition on the subject, and that his work is academically referable, and that he is one of the only true academic historians on the subject.
When Dr. Nolan was asked whether he thinks revelations will come from the government or from the phenomenon itself, and whether there is an urgency in the current situation that would require revealing information on the subject, Nolan returned the question:
"What are people looking for? Are you waiting for them to tell you that it's okay? I mean can you not see what just happened in the last week - and presumably will be finalized tomorrow - and not realize that's a formal admission of truth?"
With these phrases, he meant that the disclosure is already before our eyes, and that we need to be able to read the facts as they present themselves to us today. Indeed, the many whistle-blowers corroborate David Grush's testimony, as does the Inspector General's investigation into his complaint. But he also talked about the congressional hearings and the ongoing debates on multiple bills, which express a very real, factual battle that is unfolding before our very eyes.
"You know I've never needed anyone's permission to come to the right conclusions. And you know, the NHI have been disclosing themselves to people all over the planet for thousands of each years so they're not going to change their tune."
He added "I think the government has disclosed as much as it dares at this point, we really have to ask the question. I mean the question I would be asking is why do they think it needs to be secret?"
The presenter agreed wholeheartedly that people should be asking their elected representatives this question, and asked Dr. Nolan how listeners could constructively contribute to the disclosure of information on the subject.
His guest replied that, boring as it may sound, writing letters, sending e-mails or even phoning their elected representatives while remaining respectful and serious, asking these questions, is still the best way to get answers on the subject. He added that he himself has called several political figures. He explained that the government as well as politicians never act without public support.
"The next time you're at a political rally and you happen to be next to either the person trying to get your vote or one of their staff, say “well this really is important to me”, - in a non-crazy way - “what is your stance on this?"
Garry Nolan said people also need to find the language to talk about it around themselves, to destigmatize the subject and raise awareness, to find ways to talk about it with their family, friends and relatives, but in a constructive and pragmatic way, using "the language of data". He said people need to find a way to convince others that there's something worth looking into. He cited examples of documentaries to entertain friends and families all the while getting them interested, like that on the case of Ariel's school in Africa, in Zimbabwe, or that of James Fox.
Crash Recoveries
The end of the interview clearly showed the importance of the legislative battle underway in the U.S. Congress. It raises a number of questions: if the Schumer amendment is not adopted, how will the media and the public be able to obtain and benefit from the information they are entitled to know? Will secret programs in the future continue to steal and study devices from other nations, as well as crucial information about technologies, materials, and non-human entities from the public? How could discussions on this ontological subject radically change the paradigm and the world we live in? Could they be explored by scientists and the public alike, if the information remains secret? And how will the public ever mobilize if they are not aware of the reality of these phenomena? Will they be able to see beyond appearances and the subject's reputation, and take part in the ongoing battle for access to the truth?
Garry Nolan and the members of the Sol Foundation, meanwhile, will not stop in their quest for answers, using science, as will Avi Loeb and other independents. But will it be enough? With our planet dying, what technologies or discoveries will we be deprived of before we win the next battles to bring to light the secret research that has been going on for decades?
Finally, since Garry Nolan has worked with the CIA, which we've learned is responsible for the recovery of the devices via the "Global Access Program", who would choose the private defense contractors to whom they would delegate the recovery of materials or even entire objects? We can legitimately envisage the hypothesis that Dr. Nolan, as well as retired military or political figures who are mobilizing in favor of disclosure on these phenomena, could be part of a vast campaign of information and progressive public awareness. The pretexts of legislative blockage and secrecy would be a good way of avoiding "catastrophic disclosure", to use the terms alleged by Colonel Karl Nell, for this would enable us to control with great caution the information that is revealed, thanks to deliberate leaks and publicized legislative battles, as we are witnessing at the moment.
Translation : Guillaume Fournier Airaud
Main picture: Image by Stefan Keller from Pixabay
